Push pull type weight shaft exercising device

ABSTRACT

An exercising device comprising a shaft member having hand grips adjacent opposite ends thereof and two weight members fixed one outwardly of each of the hand grips by bearing devices for independent rotational movement about an axis extending lengthwise of the shaft member. Each weight member includes an adjustable weight in the form of a deformable container for storing water or other flowable material and an arm for connecting the container to its associated bearing device. The hand grips may be slideably supported on the shaft member and provided with spring devices resisting sliding movements of the hand grips towards one another.

United States Patent Monti Sept. 4, 1973 PUSH PULL TYPE WEIGHT SHAFT EXERCISING DEVICE [76] Inventor: Louis F. Monti, 35 18 Westwood Dr.,

Niagara Falls, NY.

[22] Filed: Nov. 12, 1971 [2]] Appl. No.: 198,369

Primary ExaminerRich'ard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-William R. Browne AttorneyJohn B. Bean et al.

[5 7 ABSTRACT An exercising device comprising a shaft member having hand grips adjacent opposite ends thereof and two weight members fixed one outwardly of each of the hand grips by bearing devices for independent rotational movement about an axis extending lengthwise of the shaft member. Each weight member includes an adjustable weight in the form of a deformable container for storing water or other flowable material and an arm for connecting the container to its associated bearing device. The hand grips may be slideably supported on the shaft member and provided with spring devices resisting sliding movements of the hand grips towards one another.

9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEI] SEP 4 I913 A. a s s Ill] I w EV Ari INVENTOR. LOU/5 F: MO/VT/ QM f@ 4 ATTORNEYS Ell/III] PUSH PULL TYPE WEIGHT SHAFT EXERCISING DEVICE SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to exercising devices and more particularly to an improved arm exercising device to be gripped by both hands of a user for the purpose of rotating a pair of weight members.

It is a particularly important feature of the present invention that each weight member includes a container, which is formed of a pliable material and adapted to receive quantities of a flowable material, such as water, sand or shot. The effective weight of weight members may be selectively varied by varying the quantity of flowable material within the container with the aid of visual indication imprinted thereon. The construction of the container and nature of its contents reduces the likelihood that serious injury would result from improper use of the exerciser.

In an alternative form of the present invention, the hand grips whose movement impart rotational movements to the weight members, are supported on opposite ends of the hand grip connecting shaft for free sliding reciprocating movements lengthwise thereof, that is, movement in directions towards and away from one another. Coil springs are employed to resiliently resist or oppose sliding movements of the hand grips towards one another. During use of the exerciser, a user may endeavor to continuously force the hand grips towards one another or attempt to maintain them in a given spaced relationship. In either case, the muscles of the user will be exercised in a novel manner.

DRAWINGS The nature and mode of the present invention will now be more fully described in the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the arm exerciser of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken generally along line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken generally along line 3-3 in FIG. 1, but showing a modified construction; and

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but showing a modi fied form of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference is now made particularly to FIG. 1, wherein the exercising device of the present invention is generally designated as 10. Exercising device includes a shaft member 12; a pair of hand grips l4, 14; a pair of weight bearing devices 16, 16; and a pair of weight members l8, l8.

In a preferred construction of device 10, shaft member 12 is in the form ofa metal rod, and hand grips l4, 14 are in the form of contoured or roughened surfaced plastic sleeves fitted over reduced diameter end portions of the shaft member, only one end portion being shown as 12a in FIG. 2. Also, as best shown in FIG. 2, each of bearing devices 16, 16 may be conveniently formed from a bolt having one end threadably received concentrically within end portion l2a. As will be apparent, the bolts support weight members 18, 18 for rotational movements within parallel planes and about an axis 20a, which extends lengthwise of shaft member 12. Alternatively, shaft member 12 may be in the form of a tube fitted with threaded end plugs to support the bolts and/or hand grips l4, 14 may be formed integrally with the shaft member.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, each of weight members l8, 18 is shown as including arm member 24, which is supported adjacent one end thereof by one of bolts 20, and a container or chamber device 26, which is carried by the other end of arm member- 24. Containers 26 are adapted to receive a flowable material, which is preferably water, but may be for instance, sand or small shot.

Arm member 24 is shown in the drawings as being in the form of a bendable plastic tube, which preferably has its bearing end reinforced, as by a suitable insert 28 in the form of a wooden plug 30 bored to receive a Nylon or like material wear sleeve 32. Preferably, the ends of sleeve 32 are arranged to project outwardly through aligned arm wall openings 34, 34 in order to space the arm from the head end of bolt 20 and shaft end portion 12a.

Containers 26 are preferably in the form of bottles blow-molded from a pliable plastic material, which is sufficiently transparent topermit a user to visually determine the degree to which the bottle is filled with water. As indicated in FIG. I, the neck end of the bottle may be sealed and permanently fixed within the end of its associated arm 24 as by screws or adhesive, not shown, and water added or removed, as desired, through a side wall located access opening sealable for instance by a stopper or plug 36.

To aid a user in determining the volume of water within the bottle and thus the effective weight thereof, suitable indicia may be imprinted on the side wall of the bottle, as indicated at 38.

To operate unit 10 as thus far described, a user would add water to containers 26, 26 to obtain a desired exercise weight. Then the user would grip hand grips l4, l4 and with both arms held generally outstretched or with elbows adjacent his sides, and impart movements to shaft member 12 laterally of axis 20a, thereby to produce rotational movements of weight members 18, 18. By forming containers 26, 26 from a pliable material and filling same with a flowable material, the likelihood of injury to the user and/or adjacent objects due to im-' proper or careless operation of device 10 is greatly reduced.

According to an alternative form shown in FIG. 3, the neck end of the bottle may be removably screw threaded into the end of arm 24 to permit filling of the bottle through its mouth in the normal manner. In this construction, escape of water into arm 24, when the device is not in use, may be prevented by forming arm 24 with an internal partition 40 or merely by employing a stopper to removably close the bottle mouth.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4, which illustrates an alternative form of the present invention, wherein a 7 pair of hand grips 14' are removably mounted for sliding movements on opposite ends of a solid shaft 12' in directions towards and away from one another, and serve to carry associated bearing devices 16' and sliding movement limiting or opposing coil type compression springs 42 engaging both the shaft and hand grips. In this construction, each of hand grips 14 is formed with a cylindrical recess 44, which is dimensioned to loosely receive an end of shaft member 12'; and each of bearing devices 16' includes a bearing shaft portion 46, which is formed at one end with an opening threaded to receive a headed retainer bolt 48 and fixed adjacent an opposite end to an enlarged cup-shaped mounting portion 50. Mounting portion 50, which is suitably fixed within recess 44 as for example by welding or adhesive, frictionally receives one end of an associated coil spring 42, whereby to mount such spring on its associated hand grip concentrically within recess 44.

An exerciser unit including the construction illustrated in FIG. 4 may be operated in the same manner as that described above in connection with the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2. However, during use, the user may also endeavor to continuously or intermediately force the hand grips towards one another against the bias of springs 42 or attempt to prevent any movement of the hand grips from a given spaced relationship, wherein the springs are partially compressed or completely released. In any event, the user's muscles will be exercised in a novel manner.

While hand grips 14' are preferably made readily removable from the shaft member 12' in order to permit their independent use, suitable constraints, not shown, may be employed to insure against unintentional separation of the hand grips from the shaft member during use.

I claim:

1. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination:

a shaft member;

a pair of user hand grip means carried adjacent opposite ends of said shaft member in a slide fitting relationship therewith for movement lengthwise of said shaft member in directions towards and away from one another;

a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grip means;

resiliently deformable means engaging said shaft member and said hand grip mean for opposing the movement of one of said hand grip means in at least one of said directions;

a pair of weight members, said weight members including arms supported adjacent first ends thereof by associated ones of said bearing devices outwardly of opposite ends of said shaft member for rotational movement in essentially parallel planes about an axis extending lengthwise of said shaft member and containers fixed to second ends of said arms for movement in an orbit about said axis, said containers being formed of a pliable material and having a scalable access opening for removably receiving quantities of flowable material determinative of the weight of said weight members. 2. An exercising device according to claim 1, wherein said hand grip means each define a recess for removably receiving one of said opposite ends in said slide fitting relationship, one end of each said recess being within each said recess with one end thereof fixed to said end closing means.

4. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination:

a shaft member;

a pair of user hand grip means carried one on each end of said shaft member for at least movement lengthwise of said shaft member in directions towards and away from one another;

resiliently deformable means engaging said hand grip means and said shaft member for opposing said movement in at least one of said directions;

a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grip means; and

a weight member supported by each said weight bearing device for rotational movements about an axis extending lengthwise of said shaft member upon movements of said device by said hand grip means laterally of said axis.

5. An exercising device according to claim 4, wherein each of said hand grip means defines a recess for removably receiving an associated end of said shaft member, one end of each said recess being closed by means for mounting 'an associate bearing device, and said resiliently deformable means includes a pair of means disposed one within each of said recess intermediate said recess end closing means and an associated end of said shaft member.

6. An exercising device according to claim 5, wherein each said recess and said ends of said shaft member are of circular cross-sectional configuration and said pair of means includes a pair of coil compression springs disposed one spring concentrically within each said recess, each of said springs having one end thereof fixed to an associated recess closing means.

7. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination:

a pair of hand grip means to be gripped by the hands of a user for manipulating said device, said hand grip means including a pair of hand grips;

shaft means for supporting said hand grips in a spaced relationship and for permitting movements thereof in directions towards and away from one another;

resiliently deformable means engaging said hand grips and said shaft means for resiliently opposing said movement in at least one of said directions;

a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grips; and

a pair of weight members supported one by each said bearing device for rotational movements about an axis disposed in alignment with said directions of movement upon movements of said device by said hand grips laterally of said axis.

8. An exercising device according to claim 7, wherein said resiliently deformable means includes coil compression spring means deformable to oppose movements of said hand grips in a direction towards one another.

9. An exercising device according to claim 7, wherein said hand grips define recesses for removably receiving opposite ends of said shaft means, one end of each of said recesses being closed by means for mounting an associated weight bearing device.

' m m =0- e t UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent NO. 3,756 ,597 Dated September 4, 1973 Mo 1: Inventor(s) Louis F n 1 It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line 37, "mean" should read means line 40, after "members" insert associated one with each said weight bearing device line 41, after "arms" insert each line 42, after "by" insert an same line 42, cancel "ones of said bearing devices" and insert weight bearing device line 43, after "of" insert said line 56, cancel "one of said". Column 4, line 24, after "associate" insert weight same line 24, cancel "of"; line 47, "movement" should read movements line 51, before "bearing" insert Weight Signed and sealed this 12th day of February 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR.V o, MARSHALL DANN Attestlng Officer Commissioner of Patents F ORM PC4050 (10-69) USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 I 9 LS. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: I969 0-866-38l. 

1. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination: a shaft member; a pair of user hand grip means carried adjacent opposite ends of said shaft member in a slide fitting relationship therewith for movement lengthwise of said shaft member in directions towards and away from one another; a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grip means; resiliently deformable means engaging said shaft member and said hand grip mean for opposing the movement of one of said hand grip means in at least one of said directions; a pair of weight members, said weight members including arms supported adjacent first ends thereof by associated ones of said bearing devices outwardly of opposite ends of said shaft member for rotational movement in essentially parallel planes about an axis extending lengthwise of said shaft member and containers fixed to second ends of said arms for movement in an orbit about said axis, said containers being formed of a pliable material and having a sealable access opening for removably receiving quantities of flowable material determinative of the weight of said weight members.
 2. An exercising device according to claim 1, wherein said hand grip means each define a recess for removably receiving one of said opposite ends in said slide fitting relationship, one end of each said recess being closed by means for mounting an associated one of said weight bearing device, and said resiliently deformable means is disposed within each said recess intermediate said end closing means and an associated end of said shaft member.
 3. An exercising device according to claim 2, wherein each said recess and said opposite ends of said shaft member are of circular cross-sectional configuration and said resiliently deformable means is a pair of coil compression springs disposed one spring concentrically within each said recess with one end thereof fixed to said end closing means.
 4. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination: a shaft member; a pair of user hand grip means carried one on each end of said shaft member for at least movement lengthwise of said shaft member in directions towards and away from one another; resiliently deformable means engaging said hand grip means and said shaft member for opposing said movement in at least one of said directions; a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grip means; and a weight member supported by each said weight bearing device for rotational movements about an axis extending lengthwise of said shaft member upon movements of said device by said hand grip means laterally of said axis.
 5. An exercising device according to claim 4, wherein each of said hand grip means defines a recess for removably receiving an associated end of said shaft member, one end of each said recess being closed by means for mounting an associate bearing device, and said resiliently deformable means includes a pair of means disposed one within each of saiD recess intermediate said recess end closing means and an associated end of said shaft member.
 6. An exercising device according to claim 5, wherein each said recess and said ends of said shaft member are of circular cross-sectional configuration and said pair of means includes a pair of coil compression springs disposed one spring concentrically within each said recess, each of said springs having one end thereof fixed to an associated recess closing means.
 7. An exercising device for manipulation by both hands of a user, which comprises in combination: a pair of hand grip means to be gripped by the hands of a user for manipulating said device, said hand grip means including a pair of hand grips; shaft means for supporting said hand grips in a spaced relationship and for permitting movements thereof in directions towards and away from one another; resiliently deformable means engaging said hand grips and said shaft means for resiliently opposing said movement in at least one of said directions; a weight bearing device mounted on each of said hand grips; and a pair of weight members supported one by each said bearing device for rotational movements about an axis disposed in alignment with said directions of movement upon movements of said device by said hand grips laterally of said axis.
 8. An exercising device according to claim 7, wherein said resiliently deformable means includes coil compression spring means deformable to oppose movements of said hand grips in a direction towards one another.
 9. An exercising device according to claim 7, wherein said hand grips define recesses for removably receiving opposite ends of said shaft means, one end of each of said recesses being closed by means for mounting an associated weight bearing device. 